A Drop of Blood on a Stormy Night
by phoenixyfriend
Summary: A collection of SasuKarin drabbles based on prompts from a random word generator. Will be updated sporadically. Each chapter is in a separate universe from the rest unless otherwise specified.
1. Puppy

Sasuke doesn't question it, at first.

Karin's done stranger things before, he reasons. There are a lot of things he wouldn't question immediately, just because he's seen some truly incredible things happen when Karin gets… creative.

Studying under Orochimaru truly did wonders for a person's ability to create new techniques.

But the puppy doesn't disappear for some experiment or training or get sent to a lab on the other side of the country. After a week, Sasuke has no choice but to question it.

"Karin, why isn't that puppy gone yet?" The question is bland, monotonous, really, and he asks it during dinner. He doesn't care for the creature very much, but it's starting to blend into the background environment and that's usually a sign that he's getting too used to things.

"It took you this long to notice?" She scoffs in return, rolling her eyes.

"I noticed, Karin. I just didn't ask."

"Hmph." She smirks at him, spinning a chopstick through her fingers. "I adopted it."

"…Why?"

"Why not?" Karin tilts her head to the side, still smirking. "Does it bother you?"

"I prefer cats." It's really the only answer he can think of, since the dog really hasn't been that much of a bother.

"You can get a cat if you want. Just remember that you'll be the one taking care of it." Karin shrugs. "Why, do you want to get rid of the dog? I think it's cute."

"You didn't really ask my opinion on it."

"I don't need your permission for things, Sasuke." Karin's smirk softens into a smile. "Besides, I thought it would be good practice."

"…Practice for…?" Sasuke is very, very confused, and that seems to be something Karin anticipated, since she just rolls her eyes with that same smile.

"For the little one."

"…Little what?" Sasuke knows a few things that phrase could apply to, but apparently, Karin's not going to give him the time to figure it out.

"Dammit, Sasuke, I'm _pregnant!_" She jabs her chopsticks at him. "You're going to be a dad, moron!"

Sasuke's face doesn't seem to be under his own control, because he's pretty sure he's somewhere between 'Deer in the Headlights' and 'Naruto with an all-you-can-eat coupon for the ramen stand' right now.

"…Really?"

"Yes." Karin huffs and crosses her arms. "And the puppy stays."

It takes Sasuke another fifteen minutes to realize he forgot to ask something. "Karin, what's the dog's name?"

"…Promise you won't laugh."

"Karin, when have I ever laughed?"

"…I named it Taka."


	2. Baton

When Suigetsu warns him to duck, he doesn't really do it fast enough. Ino let go at the wrong time, and marvelous though the girl is at cheerleading… she does make mistakes.

Hence the current situation.

"Hold _still_." Karin hisses at him, pressing the cold compress to the bruise that is currently blossoming across his cheekbone as her other hand digs through a box to find an appropriately sized bandage for the cut that's right in the middle of it. Ino stands in the background, wringing her hands and apologizing every five seconds.

"I'm _trying_." He grinds out, only to suffer for it as the blue bag digs into his cheek a little harder than necessary.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun, I didn't see you there and I was trying out a new trick and I got it wrong and oh god I really hope you get better and—" Ino's high-pitched voice is still going on in the background, but it's not a huge problem, not the way it was in middle school when she did the same thing five inches from his ear.

Karin seems to disagree.

"Yamanaka, either shut up or leave, because this really isn't a place for your yammering." Red eyes are fixed on the girl that's still in cheer uniform, and she promptly clams up. "Good girl."

"She's not that bad." Sasuke tries to insist. Really, compared to the way she used to be, Ino was more than tolerable.

"Sasuke, if you want to stay in Uncle Nagato's clinic any longer, then you'll rethink that sentence. There _are_ people here with worse injuries, and people want some peace and quiet while they get better." Karin's glare is fixed on him now. "So she stays quiet, or she doesn't stay at all."

"Sorry." Ino squeaks out, her hands gripped tight around her baton. She's normally so much more brash and confident, Sasuke thinks, but Karin's terrifying when she wants to be, and she's not wrong about the clinic either.

"Apology accepted." Karin grunts, and she finally gets around to pressing a large bandage to Sasuke's face and covering the wound that's there. "Urgh, you got blood on the compress, Sasuke… I'm going to have to wash it more than usual."

"Well, that's not really my fault, now is it?" Sasuke frowns at her, repressing the childish urge to stick out his tongue. "And are you going to put it back on?"

"It's not like there's much more I can do." Karin snorts, though she does press the compress back to his cheek.

"You could kiss it better." Ino says the line slyly, with a slightly nervous but utterly shit-eating grin on her face.

It's probably the best thing she's said all afternoon, Sasuke thinks.

Karin seems to agree, this time.


	3. Dusk

The sky is the same color as her hair, he thinks.

An old saying goes through his head, at that:

Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailor's warning.

It's night, now, or almost is, anyway. The similarity of the sky and her head is almost uncanny, and he counts himself lucky. She's been better to him than he deserves, and if he's honest with himself, he probably wouldn't be able to see these bright reds at all right now if she hadn't been there for him.

"What are you thinking about, dumbass?"

The people in his life had always been times, parts of the day or year. Naruto is high noon, is summer, is the sun in the sky and the laughter of children. Sakura is mid-afternoon, is spring, is soft and sweet, and not too hot but still warm enough to keep a heart from melting. Kakashi is midnight, is mid-winter, is starry nights and white hair and cold histories on the edge of breaking and warming up again. Suigetsu is the early evening, is the autumn equinox, is the chirping crickets and lightning bugs and cool water rushing by. Juugo is the early morning, is the spring equinox, is the chirping birds and new life growing anywhere and everywhere it can.

Itachi was the red dawn, was the blood-spattered solstices, was the beginning, the warning, the red sign that could only say _no, not you_.

And Karin… Karin is the red dusk, is the fall, is the end, the delight, the red sign of _stop, you've done enough_.

"…Just the sky."

He's lucky to have her, he thinks.


	4. Chip

She's angry.

She's not furious. Furious is reserved for things like Naruto spilling paint on her head and Ino deciding to use her as a dress-up doll.

She's not devastated. Devastated is reserved for Sasuke dying or shoving a _freaking chidori through her_ chest.

She's not spiteful. Spiteful is reserved for Suigetsu being a dick and Orochimaru making a house call.

But she does have a chip on her shoulder, which is pretty fitting, considering what the cause of her irritation _is_.

"Karin…"

"Don't."

"Naruto came over and—"

"_Don't_."

"—he ran into Suigetsu—"

"_DON'T._"

"—and they started fighting and—"

"Sasuke, they broke my favorite cup!"


	5. Sled

Modern AU

—

"Sasuke!" The voice shatters the calm morning like glass. The air still has the soft white light of a snowy morning, but the cozy feeling is irrevocably shattered. "Oi, teme!"

"Oh dear." Mikoto puts a hand up to her mouth to hide her grin. Itachi's is obvious. Fugaku just sighs. "It seems that Kushina decided to let Naruto-kun come over, and if he came…"

"Sasuke, open up!" This voice is more feminine, that of a young girl, maybe seven years old. "Come play with us or we'll break the door down!"

"Then Karin-chan is here too." Mikoto smiles.

Sasuke just sinks lower in his seat. He doesn't want to go outside. It's _cold_ outside.

"I'll go let them in before they follow up on that threat." Mikoto stands from her seat, smile still in place. "Sasuke, dear, finish up your breakfast. You can play with them then."

"Can Itachi come?"

"I can come watch to make sure you're all alright." Itachi compromises. "But Shisui is planning on coming to help me study for an exam."

Sasuke gobbles his food up. He may not want to go outside, but he has _friends_ to play with, and he didn't have that a year ago, before they moved here.

"Sasuke-kun!"

Sakura's here too? Naruto probably asked to bring her along. Oh well. She could probably take care of any boo-boos if they got them.

"Sasuke, Sasuke!" Naruto's pulling at his clothes, and that makes it pretty hard to eat.

"I want to finish my breakfast!"

Naruto doesn't seem to hear (and Itachi and Fugaku are both laughing now, albeit quietly). "Sasuke, we got a _sled!"_

Sasuke stills at that. A sled? Sleds are… sleds are _cool!_ Cooler than _bowties_, even!

"Really?"

"Really, truly." Karin nods at that, face completely serious. "Auntie Kushina gave it to us this morning."

"And she said we can play on it all day if we want, but that we better come home when she calls for us for lunch if we want cookies." Naruto nods furiously. "Hurry up Sasuke, we gotta go!"

They're out the door ten minutes later, and at the top of the big hill in the park another ten after that. None of the other kids are here yet, but Sasuke just _knows_ that the Hyuuga cousins and the Inuzuka siblings and maybe the orphanage kids are going to be coming by to play in the snow. Sasuke sees Itachi sitting on the bench at the bottom of the hill, and he knows that cousin Shisui will be there too soon, and that'll be great because Shisui is _fun_, even if he's not as cool as Itachi, and that Hana girl (Kiba's older sister, he thinks) might show up too since she always has that weird red look whenever she talks to Itachi.

"C'mon Sasuke! Let's try it out!"

"The sled only fits two!" Karin protests at Naruto tries to fit all four of them on. "Choose just one person!"

"…Sakura-chan!"

Sasuke's not too happy about not being one of the first people to try out the sled, but he knows that Itachi would tell him he was being silly, so he stays quiet anyways.

Naruto and Sakura's shrieks float back to him as they fly down the hill, and he's left alone at the top with Karin.

"Your nose is red." She informs him. He rubs at it self-consciously.

Sakura's yelling at Naruto at the bottom of the hill.

"And?" He pouts at her, though he'd never admit it. Itachi's helping Naruto and Sakura get up out of the snow, the cold white fluff getting _everywhere_.

Karin leans forward and squints, not quite seeing him through the snow on her glasses, probably. "Your cheeks are red too!"

"So?"

Sakura's yelling again, and Naruto's scrambling away from her. He tried to shove some snow into her hair, probably.

"Does that mean that you like someone? Auntie Kushina said that people turn red when they like someone or if they're in the sun too long, but I don't think there's enough sun for that." Karin stares at him.

_Maybe that's why Hana turns red when she talks to Nii-san! She likes him! She's trying to _steal_ him!_

Sasuke frowns. "I… like my friends?"

"Not like that!" Karin punches him in the arm, and it hurts more than it should. "You turn red if you _like_ like someone!"

Sasuke blinks. "Maybe it's just the snow?"

"Nuh-uh! Auntie Kushina _said!_" Karin stomps her foot in the snowy ground, carrying all the weighty conviction of a seven-year-old that knows she's right.

Sasuke sticks out his tongue at her. "Maybe your Auntie's wrong!"

"Auntie Kushina's never wrong!" Karin pokes him in the chest. Naruto and Sakura are making their way back up the hill, pulling the sled behind them.

There's no way out of this, Sasuke thinks. "I don't like anyone like that! Girls have cooties!"

"Do not!"

"Prove it!"

Karin quiets down at that, then musters herself up. "You know how the grown-ups kiss each other on the cheek before they go to work? Do that!"

"I'm not gonna kiss you!"

"But that's how you're gonna know that girls don't have cooties!"

The other kids are arriving now. Hana's gone over to Itachi and Shisui, and Kiba's chatting up the Hyuuga cousins.

"But it's always the Mommies that kiss the Daddies!" Sasuke argues, and he doesn't realize what he's done before Karin does.

"So I'll kiss you!" She says triumphantly, but by that point, Sakura and Naruto are already back.

"Okay, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura's happier than she probably was a few minutes ago. "Your turn!"

Karin and Sasuke settle into the sled easily, but they're both clearly disgruntled. It's only when they're halfway down the hill that Karin leans forward and quickly presses her lips to Sasuke's cheek.

"There. Told you girls don't have cooties!"

Sasuke crashes the sled.


	6. Bench

"That was a terrible thing to do."

Sasuke's eyes widen and he turns his head to see Karin, who has a standard look of weariness in her eyes, tired of the world's inadequacy. "What?"

"That bench." Karin points. "That's where you left your teammate before you ditched this place, right?"

Sasuke glances down, finally realizing what had drawn him here during his absentminded wanderings. "Yeah. How did you know?"

"She told me the story. We were walking along here on our way to lunch while you were with my cousin, and she told me. Figured it would interest me, I guess." Karin plops down next to him, resting her elbows on her knees and lacing her fingers in a way that is usually only done by men.

Not that she cares, apparently.

"Okay." Sasuke moves his gaze back to the passing crowd, moving every which way as they go about their daily business, conspicuously avoiding the pair of shinobi on the bench.

"…You really don't get why it was such a bad thing to do, do you?" Karin laughs drily, shaking her head. "Typical. You're so oblivious to the consequences of your actions."

"Leaving her on the bench was bad?" Sasuke stares at Karin like she's gone mad. "It was better than leaving her on the ground."

Karin turns to look at him with a raised brow. "Sasuke, you left a pretty girl, an unconscious, defenseless, twelve-year-old girl on a public bench in the middle of the night. You're lucky that the ones to find her were loyal shinobi, because even a shinobi isn't going to be able to wake up after they were deliberately knocked out like that."

Sasuke's mind spins for a few seconds, and then he pales dramatically as he suddenly realizes what Karin was getting at. "Oh."

"Yeah. Oh. I've heard she was a pretty scrappy fighter even back then, but seriously; unconscious twelve-year-old." Karin digs an elbow into his side, and it's a little harder than necessary. "Learn to think things through, because it seems like you don't really understand the concept of consequences and long-term planning, even at this age."

"I'm marrying _you_, aren't I?" Sasuke grumbles, trying to get his mind off of what had just been uncovered to him. "I'd call that pretty long-term."

"Oh, you're definitely getting better, but you're not exactly an expert at … human-ing. Or being an adult, at that." She smirks at him. "You can't interact well with people, you can't think things through properly, you don't plan very well… face it, Sasuke: you're a mess."

"Hn." Sasuke looks pointed away from her, not wanting to admit that he really is that bad at doing things that are relatively second nature to most people by the age of nineteen.

"C'mon." Karin puts a hand on his shoulder as she stands up. "Let's go back to your place and I can make us both dinner. That sound good?"

"…There better be tomatoes."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."


	7. Biting, Day 5, Sasuke 2014

**Sasuke's Birthday Week, 2014**

o.o.o.o.o

The first time he bites her, they are fourteen years old and have only met twice (not that he ever gives any indication of remembering the time in the Forest of Death). They barely know each other, but he's still recovering from a nasty slash across his torso from training, and Kabuto isn't there, so it's Karin's job to hold out her arm and order him to bite down and suck.

He stares at her like she's mad.

"Listen, it'll help. Do as I say, the wound is healed and your chakra is partially replenished. Ignore me, and you're stuck with that for weeks." She ignores the other shinobi in the med bay, red eyes focused entirely on him.

He bites.

This is the first time Karin's reaction isn't just pain and disgust. This is also the first time she finds that she doesn't completley mind that someone is biting her to get healed from some injury, because part of her is… enjoying it?

Sasuke notices the blush, but he writes it off as a side effect of the biting, something to do with her blood and its powers.

It is a side effect, just not the kind he's thinking of.

o.o.o.o.o

The second time her, they are still fourteen, and when he hears the order, he's a lot less hesitant to do as she says. Her reaction is stronger this time, and she has to bite down on her lip to keep from whimpering because it _still fucking hurts_ but there's also something to the sensations that is way, way too good to really be just her imagination.

Sasuke doesn't catch on, of course.

o.o.o.o.o

The tenth time he bites her, they are fifteen, almost sixteen, and it is the first time he needs to bite her on the chest. He's pushed himself too far, and while he isn't going to die, he's going to be laid up for longer than Orochimaru or Sasuke are willing to put up. Kabuto's out of town again, so it falls to Karin to fix Sasuke up, much to her chagrin.

She finds it very, very hard to control herself that time, because if he goes just the slightest bit lower, it's not going to be just a simple healing technique anymore, and she'd have a much more genuine reason for her body to react this way.

"Karin? Did I take too much?" Sasuke's voice is bland, and his eyes don't seem to say much, but at least the words are somewhat caring. "You don't look alright."

"I'm fine, or at least, I will be." Karin tries to control the racing of her heart, not even looking at Sasuke. "Just shut up and stop getting hurt. I'm not always going to be around to fix you."

o.o.o.o.o

After the war, Sasuke doesn't really need to bite Karin any more. Her arms are still covered in old scars, but she isn't ashamed, anymore, showing them to the world and daring it to judge.

"Suigetsu told me to ask about why you always blushed when I bit you."

"Suigetsu's a dick. Ignore him."

Too bad Sasuke doesn't always listen to directions very well.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: The chapters that have a title like [X]: Day [Y], [Z] are for events.**

**[X]: ****Prompt.**

**[Y]: The day. Some of them count up, some down.**

**[Z]: ****The event, usually from tumblr, and elaborated at the top of the chapter.**


	8. Memories, Day 4, Sasuke 2014

Karin never knows if he remembers.

He's told her about his previous memory troubles, of the memories that trauma had locked up for years when he'd been a child, but that had little to do with her wonderings.

What she wants to know is if he remembers that first meeting in the forest, when he saved her, in more ways than one, and gave her the rest of her life with a free smile on the side.

What she wants to know is if he remembers the nights she'd spent by his bedside, obsessively checking his vital signs and worrying herself into an early grave, because he'd pushed himself too far so that he could convince Orochimaru to teach him more, and wasn't awake enough to bite her by the time she got there and saw the damage; she was sometimes too exhausted by the time Kabuto took over to know if Sasuke had even woken up and known she was there.

What she wants to know is if he remembers the nights she's snuck out while Suigetsu and Juugo were asleep and just sat on the roof of whichever building they were staying at, right next to him as he kept the night's watch, quiet as a mouse and watching the sun rise, one of the few indulgences they could afford themselves anymore.

What she wants to know is if he remembers the way she would flinch away from his touch after they war first ended, the memories of lightning piercing through her heart all too fresh, the actions during the war itself not yet enough to override them.

What she wants to know is if he remembers her coming into his room after the war to sooth away the night terrors that caused his chakra to flicker so violently that it even woke her.

What she wants to know is if he remembers that she's always tried to be there, even if she couldn't be what he needed.

Because she has those memories.

And they are precious.

She never asks.

She never confides.

Not to him.

But he is told all the same.

And his lips brush against her ear, arms closing around her to still her trembling, and whisper the words she so badly needs to hear.

"_I remember it all._"


	9. Awareness, Day 3, Sasuke 2014

They sleep in the same bed, though they don't often 'sleep' together the way most married couples are supposed to.

(This is all Sasuke's doing, and while it annoys Karin to have to do things for herself even now, she respects his lack of interest in the subject when there isn't a child to be conceived.)

(It makes the rare nights when he tries anyway, for _her_ sake, all the sweeter.)

Nonetheless, they spend their nights together, and for the two of them, it is the sign of ultimate trust, to let down their guards and be near one another while so vulnerable in sleep.

Sasuke finds it harder to sleep, of the two. He's the one with more regrets, probably, and he thinks that's why Karin has such an easy time sleeping, compared to him. She never tried to kill him (in fact, she saved his life more times than he'd saved and endangered hers put together), but _he_ nearly murdered her in cold blood, and on nights where he can't sleep, and she can, that regret is what builds up and sours him from the inside as he lies next to her, wondering why the hell she ever forgave him.

That regret is why he counts every breath she takes, why he knows just how much room is (or, more commonly, isn't) between them, why he can sense the heat radiating from her body even from where he is, why he can hear her heartbeat even when he, by all rights, shouldn't be able to. That regret is why his very being is alert to her presence, impossible though it should be after what he has done.

_She is there._


	10. TakaHebi, Day 2, Sasuke 2014

Day Two: Taka/Hebi

Karin is dead tired when she gets home, having spent over fourteen straight hours working with Konoha's ANBU (teaching chakra sensing, naturally) on only a scant three hours of sleep. She enters the house, one of many in the rebuilt Uchiha district, though there are only three that are even occupied.

"Welcome back."

Karin raises her head to look at the voice's owner, a tired grin crossing her face. It's not Sasuke (he's out on a mission, she remembers), but as far as friends go, the man in front of her is one of her closest.

"Hey Juugo." She yawns and puts her things down, pushing her glasses up so that she can rub at her eyes. "When did you get here? I thought Suigetsu offered to take today?"

Juugo smiles softly at her, probably pitying her in her exhausted state. "He called me a few hours ago to ask if I could take over for him until you got back. He has something planned for tomorrow and wants to get enough sleep for it."

"Lucky him." Karin snorts, as she toes of her shoes. "Did they give you any trouble?"

"Not in the slightest." Juugo actually chuckles at that, though softly. The bundle in his arms, looking even smaller than usual due to Juugo's own ridiculous size, didn't even shift. "Hiruma went to sleep about an hour ago. I only just got Yakan to quiet down, though."

Karin approaches him, holding out her arms to take the child that he hands to her.

"Mama?" The sleepy mumble comes from the bundle of blankets, and Karin bites her lip as she smiles down at the three-year-old that hasn't even opened his eyes.

"Hey sweetie." She starts bouncing him up and down, glad that she isn't a civilian, and thus doesn't need to rest him on her hip to hold him up. "Mama's home. Say bye to Uncle Juugo, okay? He's going home now."

"Bye bye, Uncle Juugo." A hand pops up and waves, though sleepily.

"Bye bye, Yakan." Juugo replied.

The little boy snuggled closer to Karin, and his voice was a mumble when he asked the next question. "Is Uncle Juugo coming back tomorrow?"

Karin glances up, already knowing the answer, but checking anyway. Juugo nods while he pulls his shoes on, a grin on his face again. Karin turns her eyes back to her son. "Yep, Uncle Juugo's coming back tomorrow."

"Okay. That's good." And then he doesn't say any more, falling back asleep as easily as Karin is going to in about five minutes.

"Seven o'clock work for you?" Karin asks, hoping it will be; she has more classes to teach, since there are two ANBU classes she needs to work with, and no one else of her skill level in the entire village.

"Yes, that'll be fine. I'll take them to the park, if that's alright?"

"Perfect." Karin smiles. "Thanks, Juugo."

—

Yakan: three years old, male, name means nighttime

Hiruma: nine months old, female, name means daytime

Most clans seem to have naming themes, so I tried to find out what worked for the Uchiha. They, ah… well, it seemed a bit hit-and-miss, quite frankly, so I went with times of day, since those have played a pretty big part in Sasuke and Karin's lives, all things considered (*cough* Akatsuki *cough*)


	11. Future, Day 1, Sasuke 2014

Her fingers are interlaced with his, her head on his shoulder as she watches the proceedings upon the stage. An Entrance Ceremony wasn't something they'd had back in Kusa or Oto, but it was Konoha tradition, so come to watch she did, even though she'd been here barely two months before to watch a Graduation Ceremony.

"And thus goes the next generation." Sasuke mutters, squeezing her hand in his, lightly tracing his thumb across the back. She doesn't have to look to know that he is watching as Mahiru, their youngest, trot forward to take the vow that will seal his position as an Academy Student.

"This is the last time we'll be sitting here for this." Karin whispers back, voice low enough so that only Sasuke and the odd Inuzuka can hear. "Yakan already graduated, and Hiruma's only got two years left, if she doesn't choose to graduate early."

"Yonaka chose to go to a civilian school." Sasuke replies, lips pursed. That was a surprise, but any problems Sasuke may have had with the choice were quashed by Karin's glare before he could voice them, and subsequently argued out of existence that night in private.

"Yes, he did, and we'll watch his graduation when the time comes. But as it stands… this, right here, is the last time we'll be watching an Entrance Ceremony for our own children." Karin elbows him. "Honestly, you need to let that go."

"But—"

"But nothing." Karin squeezes his hand again. "Now pay attention. You're being rude."

"You were talking t—"

"Uchiha Sasuke, you are thirty-three years old. We are not having this argument."

He doesn't say any more, and Karin grins. Sasuke knows how to pick his fights now, and with Karin being the way she is, he's learned to pick carefully.

"Glad to have you though, moron." Karin mutters, but it's still quiet, and slightly abashed.

"…Glad to have you too."

—

Mahiru: Midday

Yonaka: Midnight

Yakan: Nighttime

Hiruma: Daytime


	12. Beginnings, Day 1, SasuKarin 2014

**SasuKarin Month, 2014**

o.o.o.o.o

Neither of them ever _really _figured out why he'd smiled at her that day.

So long ago, Sasuke's attitude towards smiles had been to think they were annoying on other people and unnecessary on himself. He'd smirked and sneered and occasionally quirked one side of his lip up in a sad attempt at hiding his grin after someone did something to embarrass themselves…

But he hadn't ever _smiled_. Not since the massacre.

Karin had never figured it out either. She hadn't known him back then, but it wasn't hard to imagine, to gather information and guess at what he'd been like before they'd really gotten to know each other. She could build up a profile, an estimated personality, and none of it fit with the one interaction with him that she _had_ somehow managed to survive.

Sasuke didn't know what he could have been thinking to smile at a random kunoichi in the forest.

(Though he didn't regret doing so.)

Karin didn't know what she could have done to have deserved the one and only real smile that Sasuke gave _anyone_ between the massacre and the end of the war.

(Though she thanked her lucky stars she'd done it.)

Orochimaru seemed to know.

Not that he ever said anything, of course.


	13. Fears, Day 2, SasuKarin 2014

She was terrified.

It wasn't the kind of fear that she felt in battle, or the despair she felt when Sasuke almost died, or the constant anxiety of working under Orochimaru.

It was just a normal, everyday fear that all (well, _most_) girls went through at some point:

It was the _fuck, fuck, fuck, I'm about to lose my virginity_ kind of terror.

She was kind of late in the game on that front, nineteen; not an old maid by any means, but definitely not as early as some of the other girls she knew of, both civilian and shinobi. To be fair, after she and Sasuke had finally gotten together, she'd kind of given up on the idea of recreational sex ,just because Sasuke wasn't interested in that sort of thing, so to find out that he'd decided to go ahead and give it a shot for _her sake_…

Well, it had thrilled her at first.

And now, here she was in a different room, ostensibly preparing but mostly just panicking because she was just _not ready for this at all._

Oh, she definitely wanted it. She was sure about that. But for Sasuke to offer like that was… unexpected. Jarring. Would've made her think he was an imposter if she didn't know his chakra signature so well.

She took one last look in the mirror, tried to get the butterflies in her stomach to settle, and walked out into the bedroom.


	14. Protector, Day 3, SasuKarin 2014

They were children of war, both of them. perhaps they hadn't _seen_ true war itself until they were nearly eighteen, but that didn't change the fact that they were born of it, that they suffered because of it, that they were nothing but pained remnants of what once was.

Of the two, Karin had come out better. Sasuke _could_ have done well, but Karin had been the one to survive, mentally. Sasuke had lost his mind, lost sight of what was important, and left behind a village that _could have_ given him everything that was important to him. He'd driven himself mad with grief and hatred, and had to be pulled back from the edge, pulled back from _over_ the edge, time and again before it stuck.

Karin had been different. Her village had been destroyed, and she had pulled herself together and gone to Orochimaru, because she had nowhere else to go, and he gave her purpose. Karin had gone because she had the potential and nowhere to train it. Karin had gone because the one person she had left in any way, Sasuke, had gone there as well.

She'd be damned if she let go of the one person she sort of had left.

And so she followed him. She came when he asked, helped when she was needed, and did her best to try to bring him back to what he needed to be. Her best wasn't enough (no one's was, no one but Itachi), but she _tried_. She tried so hard to protect him from the biggest threat he faced:

His grief and madness.


	15. A Moment of Peace, Day 4, SasuKarin 2014

Sasuke didn't shift when she sat down next to him, just blinked down at the water that he'd been staring at for the past several minutes. She didn't say anything for a while either, and that suited him just fine.

The hotel they were at had a pond and a garden, surrounded by walls on three sides and open to some rolling, empty planes on the last, facing east. There was a bench by the side of the pond, which they were sitting on, and a little red bridge over the narrowest part in the middle, and koi swimming around inside. It was a calm, civilian area.

He liked it, though he'd never go so far as to say so out loud.

The edge of the sun, bloated and red, could be seen peeking over the horizon. Sasuke glanced at the girl next to him, and then looked back out at the sun.

Her hair was the same color, he thought.

"It's nice." She muttered, leaning against him and putting her head on his shoulder. He didn't bother to shake her off, and didn't doubt that her eyes were half-lidded and baggy, tired from the most recent… _adventure_ they'd had. With the amount of healing she'd had to do afterwards, it was a wonder she wasn't still asleep.

"Hn." He hesitated, and then reached down to take her hand, rubbing his thumb over the back of it. "It's quiet, at least."

"You like it." She noted. Sasuke grimaced, but nodded. It was probably her sensing abilities that had allowed her to figure that out.

Or maybe she just knew him too well. She always seemed to be surprising him on that front.

"You should still be in bed." He tried to switch the conversation topic.

"Why?" Oh, he could _hear_ the smile in her voice. "Are you going to join me?"

Sasuke stiffened. He still wasn't quite used to dealing with the flirting, now that he knew what it actually _was_. He didn't necessarily mind it from _her,_ considering everything they'd been through together, but… "After what happened yesterday, you can't be anywhere near your full capacity again. You should rest."

"I'm fine, Sasuke. Give me some credit; I've got more chakra than the three of you combined, even if I can't really use it in the same ways."

Pursing his lips, Sasuke looked away. Much as he hated to admit it, the girl _did_ have him beat there. "Still, you shouldn't be exerting yourself, Karin."

"I have the chakra to go on, and I didn't get hit by a single attack. Trust me, Sasuke, I'm _fine_. A little physically tired, maybe, but I'm fine. Now shut up and enjoy the sunrise."

"Hn."

He did as he was told.


	16. Makeshift Family, Day 5, 2014

Children of pain, they were.

They'd all lost something over the years, and none of them ever even _tried_ to compare their own pain to each others', not even Sasuke.

A destroyed village, after a childhood of mediocrity.

A dead brother, a broken dream, and years upon unwilling years in little more than a test tube.

A history of madness and homicide, with a desire for only peace… and maybe a few pet birds.

A dead clan, torture at the hands of a loved one, and a littered past of broken promises.

All they had was each other.

"You know, Suigetsu and Juugo _are_ going to be staying in the compound with us for the foreseeable future." Sasuke muttered, hands tangled in the red hair of the woman that lay against his chest. Both were clothed, but there was a certain level of intimacy to even what they did now.

"I know."

"You aren't going to argue with it?"

"Why would I?"

"You and Suigetsu don't really…"

Silence reigned as he trailed off.

"You know… I hated him. For a while, actually. And I wasn't all that fond of Juugo either, honestly. Now, though… I can't really imagine living without them."

"…You want them in the _house?_"

"No, you idiot. I just… it feels right to have them nearby."


End file.
